NCJ Number
167793
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 58 Issue: 5 Dated: (August 1996) Pages: 100,102-103
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes four programs throughout the United States designed to strengthen the bonds between inmates and their children and improve inmates' parenting skills.
Abstract
Louisiana's Program for Caring Parents is geared toward incarcerated mothers and grandmothers with children or grandchildren younger than 13 years old. The program provides opportunities for mothers and grandmothers to spend quality time with their children or grandchildren. Special events, such as the Easter Egg Hunt and the Christmas Extravaganza, are intended to deepen the relationship between mother/grandmother and child during the years when the child is most impressionable. At the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, an inmate-designed program, Project HIP (Helping Incarcerated Parents), provides parenting classes and parent/child workshop sessions for male and female inmates who are parents, parents-to-be, or grandparents. The program goals are to reduce recidivism and break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. The Neil J. Houston House in Roxbury, Mass., is a residential, substance abuse treatment program for female, nonviolent offenders. While in the program, the new or expectant mother has adequate medical care, substance abuse treatment, parenting education, mother/child bonding, and assistance in community reintegration. The Nursery Program at New York's Taconic Correctional Facility is a 29-bed mother/infant nursery. Inmate mothers are taught to accept responsibility for the lives and nurturance of their children.